Cooking with gas

To the editor:

The misinformation that passes as fact in conservative circles is astounding. A few years back you couldn’t turn on Fox News without hearing about how liberals were hell-bent on banning sugary soft drinks. The chicken littles next went on to rant about the extinction of incandescent light bulbs. Both products are still on store shelves.

Now it seems the sky is falling on gas stoves. It doesn’t matter that fact checkers have dismissed a ban claim as false. Or, that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the press corps last January that President Biden “does not support banning gas stoves” and added that the Consumer Product Safety Commission “is not banning gas stoves. I just want to be very clear on that.”  

The irrational belief in a nonexistent ban continues among conservatives, as witnessed by the outrage displayed by Fox News reporter Thomas Phippen over a photo of Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband cooking Christmas dinner on a gas stove.

The same is true of fossil fuel vehicles. Conservatives are so convinced that Biden intends to ban them that House Republicans are advancing a bill prohibiting this imaginary ban. 

What the Biden Administration has done, over two years ago, is announce a plan for the government to stop purchasing gas vehicles by 2035 and the EPA has proposed cutting vehicle emissions in half by 2032 — without any requirement on fuel source for achieving the reduction. 

What’s really going on is that Republican politicians are manipulating their base by stoking fear and anger; something the GOP is very good at. Unfortunately, this wedge strategy works all too well and many voters make their decisions based upon these petty, false GOP narratives.

Joseph Cannisi